Denver voters rejected a proposed ban on meatpacking plants within city limits, keeping open the nation’s largest lamb processing facility. 

Denver Initiated Ordinance 309 was rejected by 64% of voters on Tuesday. The ballot initiative, if approved, would have prohibited the construction or operation of slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities beginning in 2026. 

Superior Farms operates a lamb processing plant in Globeville, a north Denver neighborhood plagued by high rates of poverty and pollution.

“We have one message for those who tried to (come) to our city and our state to run their experiment to upend the lives of so many hardworking people: it was a baaaaaaaad idea,” wrote Ian Silver, spokesperson for “Stop the Ban, Protect Jobs,” a campaign organization that opposed the ban.

Superior Farms, which produces about 20% of the nation’s lamb meat and processes nearly 1,500 head a day, spent more than $171,000 to oppose the ballot question, according to the Office of the Denver Clerk and Recorder. 

In total, more than $2.4 million was spent by organizations, businesses and individuals to oppose the ballot initiative. 

The Meat Institute, which represents more than 300 meatpackers and distributors, donated $250,000 to the opposition campaign. Other large donors included the American Sheep Industry Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Colorado Livestock Association, according to city campaign finance records.   

Supporters of the ban spent $339,000, led by the animal rights organization Phauna Foundation, which contributed $110,000.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am,” said Gustavo Fernandez, general manager of Superior Farms, in a statement through the American Sheep Industry Association. “I and the workers at this facility just want to do our jobs and provide for our families. Now we can get back to that without this huge weight on our shoulders.”

Denver neighborhood has been plagued by high pollution for decades

Superior Farms, the lone meatpacking facility in the city of Denver, was the focus of the campaign, along with the low-income neighborhood where it is located. 

Its ZIP code — 80216 — has been labeled the most polluted residential area in the country, according to a 2017 study from ATTOM Data Solutions, which reviewed air quality rankings, Superfund sites, former drug lab sites and other pollution metrics.  

Meatpacking plants can be heavy polluters. A recent Investigate Midwest investigation found that plants with the heaviest air and water pollution are often located in low-income communities. 

Proponents of the slaughterhouse ban said it would help reduce air and water pollution in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood, where one-in-five residents live below the federal poverty line. 

In September, Superior Farms paid a $119,000 penalty to the Environmental Protection Agency after violating regulations on how to store toxic chemicals.

Jose Huizar, a former Superior Farms employee, said he often saw feces dumped into the South Platte River, which is about 40 feet away from the plant. 

“I watched the feces from the holding pens wash into the river, where children played,” Huizar wrote last month in a column for the Denver Post. “This negligence would never be tolerated somewhere like Cherry Creek, but it’s just one more way the mostly Latino Globeville neighborhood has been left behind.”

The Globeville neighborhood is also home to two federal Superfund sites, which the EPA designates as some of the nation’s most contaminated lands. The EPA has found the plant’s ZIP code has high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil. The community is also almost entirely enclosed by highways and rail lines, which contributes to air pollution. 

Supporters hope to replicate ban effort in other communities

In addition to reducing pollution, supporters of the ban said it was a way to improve animal welfare in the city, calling the Superior Farms facility inhumane. Less than a month before the election, Direct Action Everywhere, an international network of animal rights groups, released a video it claimed showed animal abuse inside the Denver plant. 

Direct Action Everywhere said a Colorado chapter took the “undercover” video in June and July and that it shows lambs being kicked and hit. 

The video was covered by multiple news outlets and some activists displayed the images on mobile video boards that were driven around Denver before the election. 

Superior Farms denied the video showed evidence of extreme violence or animal cruelty.

A week before the election, the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project wrote a letter to the Denver District Attorney’s Office requesting an investigation into Superior Farms and its treatment of its animals. AALDP said the district attorney’s office has not responded to the request. 

Cassie King, a spokesperson for Direct Action Everywhere, said Ordinance 309 gave voters in Denver a specific way to respond to animal cruelty. 

“I think a lot of people want to put an end to animal cruelty but just don’t see a path to do that, so they might kind of turn a blind (eye),” King said. “But initiative 309 showed one possible way for ordinary people to put an end to animal cruelty and to get involved. 

“The animal rights movement, like other movements, is learning from one another,” King added, “and I think it’s already motivating future efforts in other places.” 

Closing of plant would have impact hundreds of workers

Opponents of 309 said its impact would mostly be felt by employees of the Superior Farms plant, most of whom are Hispanic. 

“Many of these workers have been at the facility for decades, and others have generational ties to their company,” said Chad Franke, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. “The ban (targeted) these workers by stripping them of their ownership stake and undermining the investments they have made in their skilled labor and financial security.”